Tag: Hun School

by Mike Pavlichko

Zoned Sports Academy in Bridgewater sends dozens off to college baseball and softball; trained three baseball champs in 2024, and New Jersey’s current No. 1 baseball team

SPONSORED CONTENT – Every year, when the weather turns cold, the real work begins at Zoned Sports Academy.

What’s the old saying? That football games aren’t won on Sundays – they’re won during the week?

If practice makes perfect, there will be some pretty good high school baseball and softball teams coming out of the doors of Zoned Sports Academy in Bridgewater, once the weather gets nice.

But in the winter? It’s time to hunker down in their 28,000 square foot facility, and get back to basics. While many kids want to pitch and throw through a brick wall, founder and owner Duke Baxter has other ideas: teach the fundamentals, the basics, the mechanics. All of that makes pitchers, for example, more efficient, and less injury prone.

Same thing for hitting. Sure, you can be strong and swing a good bat, but mechanics, stance – those are all part of the equation, too, and when they’re overlooked, the results won’t be pretty. That’s where a place like Zoned Sports Academy comes in.

Baxter and his staff will work with teams as a group, and individually, catering training sessions to individual needs. One kid has a hitch in his swing, the other isn’t positioned right coming off the mound? They’ll work on that.

Baxter has kept up with the times over the years, continually adding new programs and technology at Zoned Sports Academy. That included virtual instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, and two years ago, he instituted a new strength training program.

Duke Baxter and his staff offer one-on-one instruction in baseball and softball at Zoned Sports Academy in Bridgewater.

Last season, it all paid off on the field. There’s Bridgewater-Raritan, of course, which swept to a Skyland Conference Delaware Division title, Somerset County title, and the North 2 Group 4 and overall Group 4 state championship. The Hun School won the Mercer County Tournament and the state Prep A Tournament. And Governor Livingston won the Union County Tournament, Central Jersey Group 2 and the overall state Group 2 title.

Oh, and by the way, the Highlanders are just 22-0 this season, and the No. 1 ranked team in the state, having won 27 straight going back to last season!

On the softball side, Zoned trains a dozen or so schools, including Pingry, which reached this year’s Somerset County Tournament semifinals, and Watchung Hills, which played in last week’s county championship.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Duke Baxter, founder and owner of Zoned Sports Academy in Bridgewater:

Click the logo below to learn more about training for baseball – or softball – at Zoned Sports Academy in Bridgewater… where an athlete has to be to succeed! Reach them at 732-537-1770!